Role player
By Shauna Staveley
GateHouse News Service
Thu Sep 20, 2007, 12:03 PM EDT
Arlington, Mass. –
There hasn’t been an official No Place for Hate committee since Aug.
20, when the steering committee decided to suspend its involvement
with the Anti-Defamation League.
But hate takes no holiday and in the wake of several incidents, the No
Place for Hate steering committee held a meeting with the Human Rights
Commission and other community groups, trying to map a future for the
organization.
"People felt strongly they wanted to continue," chairwoman Cindy
Friedman said. "People really liked idea that we were this umbrella
group … Part of this spurred on that we know this kind of stuff exists
in Arlington. There is a real commitment on part of the committee…we
didn’t decide to keep going just because of what had happened."
Joe Curro, chairman of the Arlington Human Rights Commission, outlined
a series of incidents in a column published Sept. 13:
"The defacing of an elementary school playground with swastikas,
calls for racially-motivated violence, and demands to ‘ship those
niggers back,’ racist death threats posted on the bulletin board of a
public park, swastikas painted along the Minuteman Bikeway, violent
altercations attended by aggressive racial insults, anti-gay taunting
shouted between neighbors, (and) graffiti in a school restroom
targeting specific individuals on the basis of their race."
School Superintendent Nate Levenson was also a target, receiving a
phone call laced with anti-Semitism.
The vandalism and phones calls are being investigated by Arlington police.
According to Friedman, the No Place for Hate program can continue in
Arlington if the Anti-Defamation league, which sponsors the program,
"truly acknowledges" the massacre of more than 1 million Armenians
from 1915-1918 as genocide, and supports House Resolution 106
currently in Congress.
"I think we would go back to the program," she said.
Resolution 106, introduced on Jan. 30, 2007, states it is "Calling
upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United
States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning
issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide
documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian
Genocide, and for other purposes."
Even if the program remains suspended, the values espoused by the No
Place for Hate Committee won’t vanish.
"One of the things we’re doing is to look at what other programs
around other communities do," Friedman said. "People like the
structure of No Place For Hate grants and the connection with other
communities. First we’ll see if the ADL will move on their stance on
the agenda site so we could come back…if not, we’ll figure out what
else is out there that we could align ourselves with so we can get
that support and structure. No Place For Hate is still a great
program, so that’s what we’re going to go off and do within the next
month, amongst other things."
Curro believes rapid change is driving the recent surge in
hate-related graffiti.
"Frankly, what might be going on is Arlington is changing very
quickly demographically," Curro said. "We’ve had an influx of people
from all over the world who have chosen to live in our town. We have
so much to attract people that I think maybe sometimes folks see so
much influx of newcomers, some people might feel threatened and might
try to mistakenly respond to this anxiety in this way…It’s a complex
situation because I think we are a very welcoming community but by the
same token we shouldn’t fool ourselves and think that we have no
problems in this area."
Curro said community events that are both informational and fun could
be considered more "accessible" to groups that may not have attended a
meeting about the community’s diversity before. He specifically
mentioned families, as they typically have not attended Human Resource
Committee dialogues or the Vision 20/20 Diversity Task group events in
the past, but such a combination might be appealing to them.
There are other ways Curro said Arlington has worked and will continue
to work on embracing differences.
"Arlington High School does a big push in the area of diversity. They
do a big day where they bring in members of the community to run
workshops together with the kids. And I think that’s a very effective
way…The Human Right Commission itself is organizing a diversity
training session for some of our town and schools staff and elected
appointed officials, to map out a strategy for serving all corners of
the community better."
Curro also mentioned that there was "some talk" and "a lot of energy"
around bringing a potential multicultural festival or event during the
spring.
With all of the possible efforts to increase the respect of diversity,
it seems that NPFH’s structure was still considered crucial to the
efforts of the Arlington community.
"There were a lot of large informational sessions throughout this past
spring where a lot of communities came together and shared ideas.
(We’d) hate to have that energy derailed on Anti-Defamation League
issue," Curro said.
Source: 923159